An overbilling lawsuit against DLA Piper, the largest law firm in the country, has garnered attention after a client who was originally sued for unpaid legal fees filed a counter lawsuit, reports VA Lawyers Weekly.
DLA Piper sued Adam Victor, an executive in the energy industry, for $650,000 in unpaid legal fees in a bankruptcy matter the law firm was handling for him. Victor then issued a counterclaim that accused the law firm of large-scale overbilling.
Victor’s lawyers garnered 250,000 pages of documents from DLA Piper, including two emails between lawyers at the firm that may play a significant role in the lawsuit.
A month into Victor’s bankruptcy case, one lawyer acknowledged in an email that there could be an overbilling issue, writing that, “I hear we are already 200K over our estimate – that’s Team DLA Piper!”
The recipient of the email, another colleague working on the case, responded that he or she “has random people working on random research projects in standard ‘churn that bill, baby!’ mode. That bill shall know now limits.”
DLA declined a request for comment. Meanwhile, Victor’s lawyer has added a fraud claim to the countersuit, demanding $22.5 million in punitive damages.
We will keep you updated as this story unfolds.
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